Berry Head Landscape and Wildlife Photography Workshop

It was great to have an opportunity to run a Landscape and Wildlife Photography Workshop at the end of April at Berry Head Nature Reserve, for the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust. The weather was kind, sunny spells and some nice fluffy cumulus clouds on occassions that gave interest to the sky and softened the light.

There were plenty of delightful things to observe to keep us busy for the 6 hours. We spent a while in the old Artillery Store looking at basic camera theory, then a pleasant wander along the headland out to the woods. Each student was given a spot in the woods and a 10m radius 'to explore' for 20 minutes... abstracts, macro, wide views - all were encouraged. It was a good opportunity to help them find things that interested them and t then help them try and distill the essence of why things appealed, through subtraction of things that didn't add to the narrative of their image ideas.

We then wandered down the steep track into the abandonded quarries - exploring rock strata, hues, light & shade, fringe lighting, dappled light and myriad wildflowers - including the ever popular Sea Thrift.

Getting an intimate view of the Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima)

The highlight for all, I think, was watching the graceful Fulmars on the journeys along the honeycombed limestone cliffs, to-and-fro'ing to their nests.

A Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) gliding the thermals at Berry Head

The slabs at the end gave us some wonderful opportunities to see them gliding across the thermals - I think many of the workshop participants could have happily spent many more hours down there! Many gulls and a pair of Cormorants passed by, the cetaceans seemed to be busy elsewhere.

A passing trawler, dragging it's nets, had a large temporal colony of gulls and fulmars in pursuit!